She was considered the muse of George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Pattie Boyd, top model of the 60s and photographer, was married to both musicians and inspired them to write famous songs such as “Something” by the Beatles or “Layla” by Clapton’s band at the time, Derek And The Dominoes. Now the 79-year-old is auctioning off personal pieces that provide insight into the lives of rock stars at the London auction house Christie’s. “I have had these things around me for many, many years,” Boyd told the German Press Agency in London. “And I thought: If I die, what happens to it? Because my nieces and nephews aren’t really interested.”
At Christie’s, Boyd is now auctioning off letters, postcards, telegrams, small notes and many photos that were taken at parties and meetings, in private situations and at concerts. The items will be on display at Christie’s until the end of the online auction on March 22nd.
Boyd met George Harrison while filming the Beatles film “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” know. The two married in 1966. In a handwritten note from the ’60s that’s now going under the hammer, Harrison expresses his feelings for her. In 1970, Harrison’s close friend Eric Clapton confessed his love to her in a letter. She married him in 1979, two years after divorcing the ex-Beatle.
Harrison and Clapton remained friends until Harrison’s death in 2011 – “because musicians communicate on a different level,” says Boyd. “They communicate through music. And that’s a level that you don’t understand unless you’re a musician yourself. If you can communicate with someone in that way, then no matter what happens in life or what happens to you as a human being, it stays that way .”
Song lyrics and set lists will also be auctioned off. There is a humorous note in which Clapton asks his then-wife to videotape a television program for him if he is not home in time. Boyd also parted with a grandfather clock that Beatles manager Brian Epstein once gave her and Harrison; and also pieces of jewelry and old clothes from the Swinging Sixties.
The highlight of the auction is the original artwork from the album “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs” by Emile Théodore Frandsen de Schomberg. The auction house expects bids of up to 60,000 pounds (around 70,000 euros) for the oil painting on canvas.
Curious: Clapton bought the picture from the family of Frandsen, who died in 1969, and later gave it to Harrison. “When he basically stole me from George, he gave him the painting,” Boyd says with a smile. Harrison, in turn, gave it to Boyd when she divorced Clapton. She had to force herself to part with the nice things, Boyd admitted. But: “I’m glad I made the decision, otherwise things would have disappeared forever.” Christie’s is also happy. The exhibition “The Pattie Boyd Collection” is a window into the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll. “Pattie was right in the middle of London in the 1960s,” enthused sales director Adrian Hume-Sayer in an interview with dpa. “She was at the center of Beatlemania. It’s incredible.”
